Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Come hell or high water, you will want
to see the five films playing this week at Tropic Cinema.

As a matter of fact, “Hell or High
Water” is the title of the modern-day western that’s new to Tropic screens this
week. It tells of a pair of bank robbers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) being
chased by a pair of Texas Rangers (Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham). Bad guys and good guys
aside, you won’t be rooting for the dastardly bank. Christian Science Monitor
applauds, “All of the performers in this film,
right down to the bit players, are quite good, but Bridges demonstrates yet
again that he is one of the finest actors in America.” And Creative Loafing
dubs it “The best movie of the summer season.”

“Southside With You” is a new biopic about young Barack Obama going out on
his first date with Michelle. It’s a pleasant walkie-talkie tour of the
Southside of Chicago as the winsome future first couple (played by Parker
Sawyers and Tika Sumpter) gets to know each other. San Diego Reader tells us,
“President Obama’s fans and haters alike will find something to
enjoy in this slightly stilted yet oddly fascinating account of the Harvard law
student’s first date with Michelle Robinson, the woman who would eventually
become his wife.” And The Atlantic describes it as “a gentle, rose-tinted piece
of political nostalgia -- one that glances at the divisions in American
society, but still casts a optimistic view toward whatever’s next.”

Next up on the movie screens is “Light Between the Oceans,” the weeper
about a lighthouse keeper and his wife (Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander)
who find a baby in a boat and raise it as their own. But then on a trip to the
Australian mainland they meet a sad woman (Rachel Weisz) … Rolling Stone points
out, “Fassbender and Vikander, who fell in love during the making of
the film, fully commit to their roles and hold us in their grip.” And New York
Magazine notes, “The movie ends up seeming like an inchoate hybrid of melodrama
and psychodrama -- between the oceans, indeed.”

“Bad Moms” is lighter fare, albeit with serious underpinnings. Here some suburban
moms (Mile Kunis et al.) decide to live it up, to the consternation of a PT-A
prude (Christina Applegate). The indieWire sees it
as “a female-driven story that doesn’t shy away from bad behavior while also
touting the importance of familial bonds and solid parenting choices.” And Chicago Reader opines, “The movie plays like ‘Mean Girls’ with a big dollop of
middle-aged wish fulfillment.”

“Florence Foster Jenkins” is the biopic about a truly amazing singer of
that name (played by Meryl Streep) – that is, amazing in how bad she was. She’s
abetted by her devoted British companion and a boggled pianist (Hugh Grant and Simon
Helberg) on her long journey to Carnegie Hall … where the music critics lie in wait.
Toronto Star calls it “enjoyable summer
entertainment for grown-ups and anyone else seeking refuge from superheroes.” And
South China Morning Post says, “Unsurprisingly, Streep hits all the right -- or
should that be wrong? -- notes, with a marvelously tragi-comic turn.”